Working in the rain cutting down wood Didn't do my little brother much good Lost two fingers ina chainsaw bite All he does now is drink and fight Sells a bit of grass hots up cars Talks of travel never gets far Loves his kids left his wife An everyday story of country life And the red brick cottage where I was born Is the empty shell of a holiday home Most of the year there's no-one there The village is dead and they don't care Now we live on the edge of town Haven't been back since the pub closed down One man's family pays the price FOr another man's visio of country life My old man is eighty four His generation won the war He left the farm forever when They only kept on one in ten Landed gentry county snobs Where were you when they lost their jobs No-one marched or subsidised To save a country way of life Silent fields empty lanes Drifting smoke distant flames Picture postcard hills on fire Cattle burning in funeral pyres Out to graze they look so sweet We hate the blood we want the meat Buy me a beer I'll take my knife Cut you a slice of country life If you want cheap food well here's the deal Family farms are brought to heel Hammer blows of size and scale Foot and mouth the final nail The coffin of our English dream Lies out on the village green While agri-barons CAP in hand Strip this green and pleasant land Of meadow, woodland, hedgerow, pond What remains gets built upon No trains, jobs No shops, no pubs What went wrong Country life It's a little bit of country life